After the first 60 minutes of the Round of 16, the reigning champions looked to have a steep hill to climb as the Frölunda Indians trailed Färjestad Karlstad 6-3 heading into the second leg as both teams looked to seal their place in the 2019/20 Champions Hockey League Quarter-Finals.
But the Swedish giants got off to a fantastic start in the second leg, reducing the deficit to one with just over five minutes played.
The teams traded opportunities throughout the contest, but with Frölunda still behind on aggregate by one heading into the third period, someone would need to step forward and be the hero, and that man was Nicklas Lasu.
The Swedish forward and two-time CHL champion didn’t just score one goal, but a third period hat-trick to help Frölunda to an 8-2 score on the night, and an 11-8 victory overall and a spot in the next round.
"Of course it feels great to win today and turn this series around, after a pretty lousy game away last week."Nicklas Lasu speaks following Frölunda’s victory against Färjestad
“It is amazing to score some goals once in a while, and to make three is even better."
"It is a real relief to score those goals in such an important game, after that I can’t say I had bad confidence, it is easy to shoot after that.”
The comeback sees Frölunda advance to the Quarter-Finals once again, as they look to go all the way back to the Final. The Swedish side have featured in four of the five previous CHL Finals, winning three of them, and they’re looking to do it all again this season.
“We have a great mentality to believe in it all the way to the end. Even when they scored two goals we kept on going all the time.
“In fact I think we played almost 60 minutes of great hockey, so we just have to keep it up for the next game.”
For Färjestad it’s the end of their CHL journey for this season, and now they’ll return to focussing on their domestic campaign.
“We were bad, got off to a bad start and took way too many penalties,” said Färjestad Karlstad's Michael Lindqvist after the game.
“Frölunda were the better team, and honestly it was an embarrassing game today. We took too many penalties and they scored a couple of goals, and then we had to work ourselves back in the game," commented Lindqvist.
Despite this being the furthest progress Färjestad have ever made in the CHL (their previous best finish was in the Round of 32 in 2016/17), the manner of the defeat left a very bitter taste.
“We knew they were going to come out hard and we were prepared, but they got two quick goals and we couldn’t stop their momentum,” he concluded.
For Frölunda, a place in the Quarter-Finals awaits, against CHL debutants EHC Biel-Bienne, who needed overtime to defeat Augsburger Panther on Tuesday evening.